Three Aberystwyth runners gained international call ups recently as they were chosen to represent Wales at the International Masters competition held in Tenby. Anita Worthing and Paul Williams were selected for the 10k race with Lynwen Huxtable chosen for the half marathon and all came away having secured excellent times.

Paul Williams completed the course in a time of 42.45 with Anita Worthing coming out on top in her age category (FV65) in a time of 48.38, while Lynwen Huxtable, fresh from her first ultra marathon exploits, completed the half marathon in a time of 1.52.28

Anita was delighted to represent Wales: “It is naturally a great honour to get the call to represent your country and to run in such a strong field of international athletes.

Anita Worthing raced in the International Masters 2022
Anita Worthing raced in the International Masters (Aber AC)

“With nearly 400 runners taking part in the 10k race I was delighted with my category win but it was great to see a club like Aberystwyth AC represented with three of us in such esteemed company. It just shows that for a small club we very much punch above our weight.”

Balázs Pinter has had a great deal of success in long distance trail and mountain running but he took things to a different level recently.

Having originally started the 165 km Ultra Trail Snowdonia race on the Friday morning he had completed a third of the distance, before sunset came, and as the wind was so strong, and the rain so heavy, the race had to be stopped. That would be the cue for the majority of athletes to head for home but not Balázs.

He said: “I originally started with about a hundred other runners on Friday morning, with the route taking us along the Llanberis Pass to Yr Wyddfa and I completed over 50km in spectacular scenery before the race was stopped due to the weather.

Balázs Pinter out on the mountains
Balázs Pinter in the mountains (Aber AC)

“I decided to stay overnight and with the weather greatly improved the next day, the organisers allowed us to run the 50km version of the race which I completed in under 10 hours.

“It was probably more rock climbing than running much of the time, but the view was breath-taking everywhere, even when we were running in the clouds.”

So two 50km races complete in two days – quite an achievement!

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